Motherly instincts for protection proved troublesome for District Magisterial Judge Rita Arnold of Downingtown, ho was suspended from her duties and eventually officially rebuked for actions she took to keep a son from facing possible criminal punishment.

Arnold, who was elected to her third term of office in 2011, was temporarily removed from her office by order of President Judge James P. MacElree in February after being charged with judicial misconduct by the state’s Judicial Conduct Board.

The board found that Arnold had sought to delay processing of a criminal citation against her son, Forrest Solomon, involving a fight with another son. She also lied to investigators about the case, and attempted to coerce a court employee to mislead investigators about the matter.

In July, the state’s Court of Judicial Discipline handed down a one-month suspension for Arnold. She was also placed on two year’s probation after she apologized for his behavior.

Arnold is one of three Chester County district justices who have been suspended from their duties since 1980, as the position moved form justices of the peace to members of the unified court system. The other two, Carl Henry and Ray Gentile, both district justices from Parkesburg, were charged with crimes involving their official position. Arnold did not face criminal charges.

Regarding her suspension and the charges against her, she said, “I have been humbled, and I have learned. There are no words. I screwed up.”

In announcing the court’s decision, President Judge Robert E.J. Curran told Arnold the court had taken into account the family situation that led her to violate the conduct rules, as well as the support she received from members of the community who traveled to Harrisburg to support her. Curran noted Arnold had an otherwise spotless record as a three-term member of the minor judiciary.

Arnold had told the judges that she was “embarrassed and humiliated” by her suspension from the bench in February, when sheriff deputies led her from her court in Downingtown.

“I know I am a good judge,” she said, asking the court not to order her removal from the bench. “Given the opportunity, I will be an even better judge.”

The violations by Arnold stem back to a Jan. 19, 2010, incident in which Solomon was cited by state police for harassment after he had an altercation with Arnold’s other son, Jonathan Arnold, a police officer, at Arnold’s home in West Bradford, according to court documents.

Patricia Davis, the office manager for Arnold, provided the Judicial Conduct Board with a deposition in which she testified that Arnold told her in February 2010 to hold onto the citation for Solomon and not docket it. Davis also testified that when Arnold learned Davis would be providing a deposition the judge asked Davis to lie about when she learned of the Solomon citation.

“This is a tragic case, because it involves a judge who is the mother of an obviously troubled young man,” an attorney for the conduct board told the judges. But he said while that sense of protectiveness might have been understandable and forgivable in a personal sense, her misrepresentations to the court officials about what had happened and her pressure on the staff to support her version of events was not.

“That cannot be explained or excused as easily as the underlying matter” of the citation,” Kleman said. To lie and pressure others to lie constitute actions that “chip away at the very foundation of our judicial system.”

“A judge above all must be truthful even when the truth might be harmful to that judge,” he said.